This invention relates to a protective pad having structural members lined with padding, particularly to one having padding easily detachable from its structural member.
Protective pads with structural members lined with releaseable padding have been developed recently to take the place of those with the structural member and padding fixed together which cannot be repaired or renewed when the padding is destroyed because of the high replacement cost and long replacement period. U.S. patent application Ser. No. 619,574 filed on May 11, 1984, and now abandoned discloses protective gear having structural members each of which is lined with a pad at the interior side thereof by a releaseable securing means which includes a strap anchored to the pad and has a free end portion turned upward to extend through an opening provided in the structural member to the exterior side. The free-end portion is provided with hook-and-loop fastener means securing releaseably the strap to the exterior side of the structural member. Such a protective pad has a disadvantage in that the hook-and-loop fastener means will separate upon being struck or subjected to impact since the fastener means is exposed on the exterior side of the structural member, thus causing the pad to become displaced relative to the structural member or separated from the structural member.
To alleviate the above disadvantages, the inventor of the present invention proposed in U.S. Patent Application Ser. No. 826,920 filed on Feb. 7, 1986, and now abandoned, that looped-straps be attached to the interior side of the structural member to be used in co-operation with straps having hook-and-loop fastener means attached to the pad and the structural member, one of the straps passing through and being turned about the looped-straps and the hook-and-loop fastener means on said one strap engaging with the hook-and-loop fastener means on the other strap to hold the structural member and the pad contiguously together. Nevertheless, it was found that such an arrangement was still disadvantageous because it is very inconvenient to bring the straps to a securing position within a narrow space.